Authorities probe luxury hotels over hygiene claims

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The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said it has started investigations into the hotels and has instructed its branches in five provinces and municipalities to investigate, including Shanghai, Beijing, Fujian, Jiangxi and Guizhou, Xinhuanet reported on Friday.

In response to a viral video that exposed the shoddy cleaning practices of 14 luxury hotels in China, the government’s health departments in Shanghai and Beijing, where most of these disgraced hotels are located, dispatched inspection teams on Thursday to perform a thorough inspection.

Health officials in Beijing's Dongcheng, Haidian and Chaoyang districts collected samples from the four hotels shown in the video for examination. Test results will be made public.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development summoned managers of the four hotels for an inquiry on Thursday, ordering them to verify the video. If the claims were true, the hotels should rectify their hygiene work in a fixed period of time.

The 11-minute video, titled “The Secrets of Cups”, was produced and uploaded onto Sina Weibo on Wednesday night by a famous Chinese blogger who goes by the username Hua Zong Diu Le Jin Gu Bang. Within 12 hours of its release, the video was viewed more than 13 million times, sparking heated discussions in print and online media.

Hotels mentioned in the video include the Waldorf Astoria Shanghai, the recently opened Bulgari Hotel Shanghai, Park Hyatt Beijing and the Aman Summer Palace Luxury Resort in Beijing. A night at any of these hotels cost at least 1,500 yuan ($216).

The video showed that housekeepers from these hotels have been cleaning mugs used for drinking or brushing teeth with used towels or the same cloth that is used to wipe toilet seats.

Park Hyatt Beijing and Shangri-la Hotel Fuzhou, which were among the 14 hotels featured in the video, issued apology letters by Thursday noon, saying that they would conduct additional training or self-checks, according to Shanghai-based Chinese media The Paper.